After 82 years, New English School in Pune has opened its doors to girls once more: 25 girls will join Standard V in the academic year about to begin.
Founded in 1880 by educationists and revolutionaries Vishnu Krushna Chiplunkar, Bal Gangadhar ‘Lokmanya’ Tilak and Gopal Ganesh Agarkar, the school was co-educational until 1936, when the Deccan Education Society (DES) — also founded by Chiplunkar, Tilak, and Agarkar, among others — which had taken over the management by then, moved the girls to its Ahilyadevi High School for Girls.
Chiplunkar, who is remembered as the poet of Maharashtra’s nationalist revival for his ornate literary style, quit government service in 1879 and issued a call for the creation of a school run by Indians. Tilak, with Mahadev Ballal Namjoshi, volunteered as charter members of the school faculty; they were joined by Agarkar, another great educationist and Tilak’s close friend.
Significant event
The establishment of the school is a significant event in the freedom movement; it was not just a beginning of the effort to break the British hold on education, but one that used the English language to imbue nationalist thought. The founders, all young men at that time (Chiplunkar was 30 when NES started, with Tilak and the others in their mid-20s) founded the DES a few years later, with the goal of making education accessible to students by establishing schools and colleges run by Indians across what was then the Bombay Presidency.
NES began lessons on January 2, 1880, with 19 students. Enrolment increased ten-fold within a year.
Such was the zeal of the promoters in making the school successful, that they took far lower salaries than they could have got elsewhere. In 1896, The Hindu reported, “For some years in the beginning, these B.A.’s and M.A.’s who while Fellows of the Deccan College had enjoyed the salaries of ₹75 or ₹100 per month and who would have obtained more than ₹100 anywhere and in any literary branch of the Goverment Service, remained content with the pittance of ₹30 or ₹40 per month!”
In a few short years, NES became the biggest school in the Bombay Presidency. And the DES expanded too. Among the institutions it founded were Fergusson College, Pune (1885), Willingdon College, Sangli (1919) Brihan Maharashtra College of commerce (1943), Chintamanarao College of Commerce (1960).
Today, New English School, in the crowded lanes of Old Pune, has around 500 students in a year, from Standards V to X.
“The decision to reintroduce co-education was taken to demolish gender barriers in a changing world,” Nagesh Shankar Mone, the school’s headmaster, said. “The move is meant to imbue the school with the advantages of a co-educational environment, thereby helping students acquire a more holistic education.”
